


Fuck You (I Love You)

by iwillpaintasongforlou



Category: One Direction (Band), Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M, You don't need to get Pacific Rim to read this, it's basically just enjoying the idea of mind-melded larry, where they say 'fuck you' when they really mean 'I love you', with some love-hate smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:38:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1909512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwillpaintasongforlou/pseuds/iwillpaintasongforlou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis doesn't want Harry to be his copilot because he <i>really</i> doesn't want Harry to find out just how badly Louis wants to fuck him. Unfortunately, no one ever listens to Louis. "Fuck you" sounds better than "I need you," anyways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fuck You (I Love You)

**Author's Note:**

> THE PROMPT: "Larry AU where they're drift compatible"
> 
> Hope this satisfies your craving, anon! Sorry for any inaccuracies because I'd never even heard of Pacific Rim before this. But anything for y'all, so (sunglasses emoji)

“All due respect, sir,” Louis said in a dry tone that implied exactly zero respect, “the answer is no.”

“I’m not sure anyone asked you to answer anything, Tomlinson,” returned Pentecost with just as little concern. “Pairing up pilots is a science, not a guessing game, which is why we had _scientists_ pick the best potential copilot for you. The data says you’re most likely to be drift compatible with him.”

“So you’re telling me I get no input whatsoever about who I let fuck around with my brain and then go charging off into battle with? I’m not going to do that with any random bloke off the street.”

“He does realize I’m standing right next to him, right?” Harry asked the Marshal quietly.

Louis sighed and faced Harry for the first time since the fifteen-second glance over he’d given when Pentecost announced that they would be trying a drift together today. His expression is carefully bored. “Listen, it’s no offense to you, I just- I don’t like the look of you.”

“Well I don’t like the fact that you’re an asshole,” Harry fired back, face hot. _How dare this jerk come in here and-?_ “Fuck you, I don’t want to drift with you, either!”

Pentecost smacked a hand on his desk, making them both jump and startling them out of focusing on each other so they could focus on him instead. “Well luckily I don’t give a rat’s ass what either of you like or want. I care about the highly effective algorithms we’ve designed that match copilots saying that you’re drift compatible, and I care about getting someone in that Jaeger before the next Kaiju shows up.”

“Please, sir-”

“Tomlinson, if you say one more word I will find one of my welders and there will be a custom-fit muzzle on your face in under an hour. You and Styles will be in that Jaeger at 3pm sharp and that is the end of the story!”

…………………

Harry waited all the way until they were in the corridor after the drift to speak. “So. That went well.”

“What’s that the technician said? We’re the ‘most compatible pilots he’s ever seen?’” Louis replied, sounding more than a little strangled.

“Better than any blood-related pilots he’s seen, even,” answered Harry very casually. He’s tripping over himself to keep up with Louis’ breakneck stride through the maze of hallways. “Funny, that we’re so compatible. Since you told the Marshal you hated me so much. It’s almost like that wasn’t the truth-”

It was less than a second before Harry’s back was getting slammed into the hard metal wall and Louis’ forearm was pressing into his throat. He was tiny in stature but quick and apparently very strong, because it was notably difficult for Harry to breathe just about now. “Listen,” Louis hissed, “I don’t know what you saw, or what you _think_ you saw during that drift, but I’m here to be the best pilot this program has ever seen. You understand me?”

Harry grins. “Your skill doesn’t mean shit without a partner. And _you_ wanted to not even give your most compatible potential copilot a chance just because-”

“Don’t you fucking say it!”

“-because you didn’t want me to get in your head and see that you wanted to fuck me.”

There’s a very long, very tense moment in which Harry is a little afraid he might get strangled to death in a back corridor by this tiny man and Louis is afraid he might lose his eligibility for pilot status if he commits murder. Neither one blinks as they stare each other down, each as unyielding as the robots they were apparently destined to battle in together.

Finally Louis steps back and lets Harry breathe again, which he does with a smirk on his face because they both know Louis’ been had. “Yeah, well. I saw in _your_ head that you wouldn’t mind it if I did. So.”

Harry didn’t deny anything that he knew to be true. Not much of a point anyways when Louis was going to spend the next, well, conceivably _forever_ digging around in his brain. “Right. So. Now that all of this bullshit is over with, are we going to kick some ass as copilots or what?”

There’s a sour expression on Louis’ face that doesn’t make him any less handsome. “Yeah, alright. But only because we’re drift compatible and you were best in your class,” he felt compelled to add.

“Of course.”

“And don’t think that just because you saw- what you saw, we’re going to fuck. Because… we’re not.”

“Absolutely not.”

 

…………………

They made it exactly three weeks before they fucked.

“Get that godawful fucking smirk off your face, Styles, or I swear to god I will pull out and go back to my room,” Louis panted as he admired the way that his dog tags dangled from around his neck and pooled on Harry’s chest next to his own. There wasn’t an inch of skin on either of them that wasn’t sweaty, and even flushed and breathless from Louis’ thrusts, the kid looked _good._

“You can’t lie to me, Louis, we drift together,” Harry retorted, though the end gets cut off in a moan because Louis is experimenting with angles. “Shit! Just like that, please, move just like that.”

“I hate the way you’re so goddamn polite,” grumbled Louis. He kept moving exactly like that.

“If you hate me so much, when why are you in my bed in the middle of the night?”

“Fuck you,” Louis retorted, and fucked Harry harder.

…………………

It’s hard for anyone that isn’t a Jaeger pilot to understand that not every dead Kaiju feels like a victory. Every dead Kaiju comes with dead civilians and destroyed cities, and those don’t feel like victories. Some dead Kaiju come with dead comrades, and then even coming home feels like a loss.

Louis knows that Harry is going to show up to his room before Harry does, probably. It’s why he left the door unlocked and put an extra blanket on the bed before he got in. Harry’s always so goddamn cold. He’s facing the wall, but he hears the open and shut of the metal door and the shuffle of socked feet that announces he’s right, as usual.

Harry climbs silently into bed and they lay on their sides facing each other, just looking. Green eyes are welled up with tears. Blue eyes try hard not to well up with pity, because Harry hates being pitied. Louis doesn’t ask if Harry is okay, because that’s a dumb fucking question and he knows the answer anyways.

“He was my roommate when we were cadets,” Harry whispers. “We passed a flask back and forth during graduation. We copied coursework off of each other. I always thought-” There’s a little pause as Harry swallows and sniffles. “I always thought he and I would be the ones that would be drift compatible. And now he’s-”

Dead. Six months ago Louis would have rattled off a speech about the casualties of war and how dying for the cause was a noble way to go and how really, losing two Jaeger pilots was statistically insignificant compared to all the innocent lives saved. But he can’t say any of that now. He’s been inside Harry’s head, and it’s impossible to be cold when you’ve felt that kind of sunshine.

“How can I help?” he murmurs instead.

“You don’t have to do anything.” Harry’s voice is detached, distant. “You’re not my goddamn boyfriend.”

Which is exactly what Louis would have grumbled if it weren’t for the fact that they were practically the same person now and Louis knew just the anguish the beautiful boy was feeling. “No, I’m not,” he whispers, “but I am your partner. Come here, babe. Come be close to me.”

They’re the words Harry’s been waiting to hear- of course they are, Louis always knows- and he scoots closer instantly, until his head is tucked beneath Louis’ chin and their legs are all tangled up together. The chill of the Jaeger compound starts to leave Harry’s bones as the warmth of Louis’ bed replaces it. He can’t quite close his eyes yet, but at least he’s warm here. At least he’s safe.

Louis hand drifts from Harry’s hip to the front of his sweatpants, and pulls them down as much as he can without disturbing him. “I’m gonna take care of you, Haz. I’ve got you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Always promise.”

He pulls Harry off gently, slowly, with Harry’s quiet little moans getting lost into Louis’ collarbones and his hands fisting in Louis’ shirt. Louis keeps kissing the top of those curls and pretending he doesn’t hear the sniffles mixed in with the breathy pants.

“I’ve gotta move, babe, you’re about to come,” he whispered in Harry’s ear, giving him a gentle nudge until Harry’s on his back and Louis is hovering over him.

“How did you-?”

“I know you, love, don’t be silly.” Louis drifts down Harry’s torso and gets his mouth around the tip of Harry’s cock just before he comes with a muffled grunt and a sigh of Louis’ name.

Louis resettles the cotton on Harry’s hips and resumes cuddling him without another word. Harry speaks though, after a minute, his eyelids fluttering with sudden drowsiness. “Thank you. I- needed that.”

“I know.”

“I’ll blow you-”

“No, you won’t,” Louis interrupted, firm but kind. “You’re going to stop fighting it and go to sleep, and you’re not going to wake up until I tell you to.”

“You’re such an asshole,” retorts Harry, because saying _thank you for caring_ isn’t the way they operate. “You know you can’t actually control when my body sleeps, right?”

“Funny, ‘cause I just made your body very sleepy. So fuck you, I can.”

“Fuck you, too,” Harry mumbles. He falls asleep in those warm arms and doesn’t wake up until Louis kisses him awake, but that doesn’t mean anything, really.

…………………

“That was a fucking badass fight,” Louis grinned as they stumbled from the Jaeger after what felt like their millionth battle in the three years they’ve been copilots. “Our best yet, I think.”

Harry reaches out a fist to bump the one Louis’ offers and pretends he doesn’t notice Louis eyefucking him because there are _people_ around. Jesus. “What’s this?” he says loudly, and largely for the benefit of those other people. “Louis Tomlinson is finishing a fight without giving me one single criticism? Am I dreaming?”

“Shut up, asshole,” Louis laughed. “Fuck you! I give friendly, constructive criticism. Like how your left hook was weak today.”

“Louis!”

“What? Just an observation!”

Harry grinned and rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Be a prick if you want to, I don’t care. I know the real reason you nitpick my fighting skills- you’re just jealous ‘cause you don’t have a wicked scar.” He reaches up and touches the gash from eyebrow to jaw on one side of his face that he got from one particularly nasty Kaiju that they were lucky to have escaped from alive.

“I don’t want your ugly-ass scar, I want a partner with a good left hook,” snorted Louis with a sideways smirk of his own. Harry isn’t smiling though, he’s looking down and away and uh-oh, Louis’ fucked up now.

He holds out hope though that he’s just being paranoid and that there will still be victory sex once they’re back in their room. About two years ago when rooms were being reassigned, Louis finally told the lodging coordinator that there was no point wasting two rooms on them anymore. If Harry wasn’t in Louis’ bed, it was only because Louis was in his. It had been a year and a half before anyone even attempted to get them to stay in separate rooms for more than five minutes, because there was really no point in that, either. They were useless without each other and always found ways to sneak back together again anyways. They were simply inseparable.

But there isn’t any giggly, post-survival euphoria in Harry’s face today, and he isn’t trying to claw the clothes off Louis’ back like usual. He’s just quietly washing his face, brushing his teeth, and otherwise getting ready for bed. Louis’ frozen in the middle of the room because Kaiju are scary and all but Harry’s upset and that’s not something he’s prepared to deal with.

“Haz, is everything- is everything okay?” he asked hesitantly when Harry’s crawled into bed and wrapped up in the duvet facing the wall. “You’re not- you seem, er, off.”

“Just because we usually fuck now doesn’t mean I have to want to fuck you tonight,” Harry harshly replied.

Louis would never admit it to anyone, but that fucking _hurt,_ and a hand came up to his chest like he was going to be able to stop his heart from panging like that. “Harry, I’m not asking because I’m upset you don’t want to fuck. Fuck me, don’t fuck me, the important thing is that you’re upset and I don’t want you to be.”

It’s a long moment of silence. Then Harry’s quiet, “How long have we been doing this, Louis?”

“Doing what?”

“Fighting together and sleeping together. Doing everything together.”

“Three years,” Louis replied instantly. “But you know that.”

“How many times have you told me you loved me?”

Harry can only see the wall, not the way that Louis’ jaw drops open, but he probably doesn’t have to. He probably already knows how his partner is scrambling for words. “You- you know how I feel about you,” Louis manages at last. “You’re in my head every single day, you know everything that I think and feel-”

“That’s not what I asked, Lou, and you know it.” Harry sits up and turns around and there are tears in his eyes that don’t match the fierce expression on his face. “How many times have you _said_ it? Because there’s a difference between thinking and doing. I think about punching Kroger in the face on a daily basis, but I don’t actually do it. So just because you think about caring about me doesn’t mean-” The words get stuck in his throat.

“Oh, Harry…” Louis sighed. “I thought you just- I thought it was enough that you _knew-”_

“It’s not enough when the only things I hear you say are that I have a shitty left hook and an ugly scar, or that you wanna fuck. Maybe it’s dumb, but I want to _hear_ nice things, too.”

“Stand up.”

“What?”

“Stand up,” Louis repeated just as gently. “I want to look you right in the eye.”

He stood, slowly and looked more like a man fresh out of battle than Louis had ever seen him. Maybe it’s because this time he was fighting alone. “Don’t say anything you don’t mean just because I brought it up. I don’t want you to lie to me because you pity me.”

“Of all the things I feel for you, pity isn’t one of them,” Louis answered honestly. “Apology, yes, because I spend enough time in your head that I should have known how important it was for you to hear, out loud, that I love you more than even makes fucking sense. And not because you’re a good fighter or because you’re good in bed.”

Harry rolled his eyes with the tiniest of smiles. “Don’t lie to me, Tomlinson, I know you.”

“Okay, so the fact that you’re fantastic at both of those things _helps,_ but that’s not the whole reason,” Louis grinned in return. “Mostly it’s because you’re this ridiculously beautiful and incredible person that I’m not sure why I’m allowed to breathe your air, let alone be with you in any sort of way. So. We could never fight or fuck again and I’d still love you just as stupid much as I do now.”

“You mean that,” Harry smiles. It isn’t a question.

“I can’t believe I just said all that sappy shit,” Louis sighed as he wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist and pulled him close so he could lay his head on Harry’s chest and hear that heartbeat. “I’m not sure who I am anymore. I think I’m having an out-of-body experience.”

“Nope, still Louis,” confirmed Harry, holding him just as tightly. “And it was nice to hear, anyways.”

“Well. I’ll say it all the time for you, then. Because I mean it.”

“You don’t have to say the whole long speech, you know. You could just say the abbreviated version.”

So Louis pulled back, took Harry’s smiling face in his calloused hands, and kissed him hard. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

_I know._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fuck you all, basically. <3
> 
> canonlarry | tumblr


End file.
